THIS WEEKEND Singer-actress
Beyoncé Knowles crushed the competition with a sizzling opening
for her new romantic thriller Obsessed which
powered well past expectations to lead the North American box office over
the final weekend before the much-anticipated start of the summer movie
season. Also performing well were two other new releases - the Channing
Tatum drama Fighting and the animal
documentary Earth. Not drawing big
crowds was the star-combo of Robert Downey Jr. and Jamie Foxx in The
Soloist which bowed in fourth place. Most holdovers fell sharply
losing 50% or more of their business, but the top ten hit the $100M mark
surging more than 30% ahead of last year's levels ending a record April
and a busy spring with a bang.

Sony's Screen Gems unit tempted audiences with a well-marketed thriller
and got off to an explosive start with Obsessed
which grossed $28.6M in its first weekend in theaters, according
to final studio figures. Busting into
2,514 locations, the PG-13 pic averaged a steamy $11,381 per site and shot
higher than pre-release forecasts. The hit film stars Knowles and Idris
Elba as a happily married couple until a sexy young office worker (Ali
Larter) begins to stalk the husband. The prospect of a woman-on-woman fight
piqued the interest of moviegoers and the collision of a black couple and
a white seductress also gave the film a must-see edge.

Obsessed scored the seventh largest
opening ever for the month of April and was a new career high for Knowles
when in a lead role. It was also the second best in company history for
Screen Gems behind the $30.1M of 2005's The Exorcism
of Emily Rose. Females drove the business for Obsessed
making up 58% of the crowd, according to studio research, while
the age range was broad with 51% being over 25. A modest $20M budget means
Sony has yet another profitable hit on its hands.

Obsessed also gave the film industry
its eighth consecutive weekend with a $20M+ opening capping off a stellar
four-month start to 2009. Over the first 17 weeks of the year, the number
of movies opening in wide release dropped 9% (51 vs. 56 last year). However,
studios were able to reduce the clutter that often causes many pics to
fail allowing for more marketing focus on each title. As a result, box
office is up 16% and admissions are up 14%. Plus the number of $20M+ openers
rose from 11 last year to 18 this year while the amount of films crossing
the $100M mark skyrocketed from just one in 2008 to six in the current
year. The summer box office could not have asked for more momentum as it
gets underway especially since the massive April crowds have been treated
to trailers and posters for the upcoming season's big crop of blockbusters.

Zac Efron's high school comedy 17 Again
dropped from first to second place and fell by an understandable 51% to
$11.5M. With a solid $39.8M in ten days, the PG-13 hit looks headed for
a finish of $65-70M proving that the teen heartthrob of the small screen
can draw paying crowds to the multiplexes even outside of a franchise.

Debuting in third was Channing Tatum's young adult drama Fighting
which punched up $11M in its opening weekend. The Rogue Pictures film was
released by Universal and averaged a solid $4,775 from 2,309 venues. Tatum
rose to fame in 2006 with the dance drama Step
Up but has been mostly absent from the box office since then,
a risky move considering the rapidly shifting tastes of young people. Rated
PG-13, Fighting catered to teens and
young adults with males excited by the fights and females coming in for
the hunky lead actor. Studio research showed that males made up 58% of
the audience while 66% were under 25.

Faring worst among the weekend's three new fictional wide releases was
the violinist drama The Soloist which
debuted to $9.7M from 2,024 theaters. The Paramount release did average
a respectable $4,801 per theater, but the PG-13 pic starring Robert Downey
Jr. and Jamie Foxx failed to make much of a dent in the overall marketplace.
Reviews were mixed which may have sent moviegoers elsewhere and the story
of a journalist who bonds with a genius musician who happens to be homeless
did little to excite the public. Even the casting of two popular Oscar-caliber
actors couldn't push the pic into double-digit territory. The
Soloist reportedly cost $60M to produce, a tough number to recoup
especially given the film's limited appeal abroad.

The animal documentary Earth enjoyed
a robust debut grossing $8.8M in its first weekend of play. The G-rated
tale following the stories of three sets of God's creatures averaged a
healthy $4,892 from 1,804 locations. Rarely are documentaries given a nationwide
release in the first weekend but Disney used Wednesday's Earth Day as a
launching pad midweek and wound up with a stellar $14.5M over the five-day
debut period. James Earl Jones narrated the film which earned glowing reviews.
With the summer movie season unleashing a string of violent action films,
Earth could enjoy a promising road
ahead if it can connect with parents of smaller children looking for fun
and peaceful entertainment. Hollywood has little to offer that lucrative
segment of the audience until late May when Fox unleashes Night
at the Museum 2 and Disney offers up Pixar's Up.

In its fifth weekend, the animated smash Monsters
vs. Aliens slipped 36% to $8.5M boosting the total to $174.8M
to date. The year's top-grossing film is from DreamWorks and Paramount.
Universal's conspiracy thriller State of Play
dropped a troubling 51% in its second weekend to $6.8M bringing the ten-day
total to a mere $25.1M. Budgeted at $60M, the Russell Crowe-Ben Affleck
starrer should finish up with a disappointing domestic take of around $40M
despite positive reviews from critics. State joins
Soloist as the latest star-driven dramas
targeting mature adults that are failing to find big audiences this year
following The International and Duplicity.
All will end up in the $25-45M range which is not what studios were hoping
for when those large star salaries were negotiated.

Hannah Montana The Movie followed
with $6.4M, down 52%, giving Disney a solid $65.7M after 17 days. Falling
47% in its fourth lap was Fast & Furious
which nabbed $6.2M pumping up Universal's total to $145.4M edging past
the $144.5M of 2001's The Fast and the Furious
to become the top-grossing installment of the four-pic franchise. The original
Paul Walker-Vin Diesel pairing sold more tickets though. Adjusted for today's
ticket prices, the cumes would be $186M for the first Furious,
$154M for 2003's 2 Fast 2 Furious,
$145M for the new Fast, and $70M for
2006's The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift.
Overseas, the latest street-racing pic banked an estimated $15.2M from
59 territories to propel the international take to $170M and the global
gross to a stunning $315M and counting.

April's other action sequel aimed at young men is running out of gas
quickly. Jason Statham's Crank High Voltage
collapsed by 62% in its second weekend following its lackluster opening
and grossed $2.6M. With only $11.7M in ten days, a weak final gross of
roughly $15M seems likely. The first Crank
took in $27.8M in 2006. Lionsgate distributed both installments.

The top ten films grossed $100.3M which was up 32% from last year when
Baby Mama opened in the top spot with
$17.4M; and up a scorching 76% from 2007 when Disturbia
stayed at number one for a third weekend with $9M.

Compared to projections, Obsessed
flew much higher than my $17M forecast while Fighting
was very close to my $12M prediction. The Soloist
debuted slightly ahead of my $8M projection and Earth
opened better than my $5M forecast.

For DVD reviews of Slumdog
Millionaire and Quantum of Solace
visit The Chief Report.

Be sure to check back on Thursday
for a complete summary, including projections, for next weekend when X-Men
Origins: Wolverine and Ghosts of Girlfriends
Past, and Battle For Terra
all open to kick off the summer movie season.

This column is updated three times each week:
Thursday
(upcoming weekend's summary), Sunday
(post-weekend analysis with estimates), and Monday
night (actuals). Opinions expressed in this column are those solely of
the author.